One of the most important and positive results that patients report when they receive chiropractic treatment, is the reduction in their levels of stress.

The spine and neck contain all of the nerves that eventually wind up connected to every working organ in our bodies. When the chiropractor finds misalignments in the vertebrae in our neck and spine, normal functioning of the nerves is restored by adjustment.

Misalignments are called subluxations, and they can be caused by a misaligned vertebrae, muscle or joint which restricts the nerve flow. This causes tension in the body and the restoration of the alignment by chiropractic adjustment results in a decrease in the overall stress levels of patients.

Chiropractic actually helps the entire nervous system become more highly organized by freeing up areas that are blocked, or impinged by sleeping, working, playing, bending and just being active in life.

The autonomic nervous system is the part of our nervous system that functions with us being aware of it. This controls our breathing, heart rate, digestion, brain function, and the signals that go out to all of our organs from the brain.

This system is most profoundly affected by tension and stress, when stress is reduced, the autonomic nervous system functions more efficiently.

The autonomic nervous system is then made up of two subsets – the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is our “fight or flight” response when confronted with danger. Unfortunately, we confuse danger with events that trigger that response in our daily lives, such as a car pulling in front of us, or an angry statement by a co-worker. This causes stress.

The parasympathetic nervous system has to do with our immune system, bodily functions, and such.

Stress affects all of this, and the more stress we encounter, the more that various hormones are released to help us “fight” the battle, so to speak. These two elements of our nervous system the sympathetic and the parasympathetic work best together when they are balanced, and chiropractic treatment is one of the best methods of balancing these two together.

Many patients report that after they experience a session of chiropractic treatment, they feel very “well” and relaxed. It is interesting to note that the word disease is really “diss-ease” and of course stress is one of the primary causes of disease.

Much is gained by patients when they can come into their appointment with the chiropractor and explain where in their body they feel tension, and to relate what is going on in their lives. The chiropractor is trained to discover from that information and by examining the patient just where there are problems of subluxation, and how they will be corrected.

If people don’t feel that our nerves need an open pathway from our brains to our organs, just use as an example the total loss of nerve function if there is a serious neck or spinal cord injury. Of course that is the extreme example, but it points out how the loss of nerve viability can affect our ability to function normally. The chiropractor is trained to spot any abnormality and correct it on the spot.